By Gurnam Singh | Opinion |
Introduction
At a time when the international order, established after the Second World War, is under significant strain, questions regarding the role and responsibility of political leadership have gained renewed urgency. In particular, the rise of powerful authoritarian leaders, such as Donald Trump and Vladamir Putin, coupled with the significant increases in inequality, conflict and refugee flows, has triggered important debates about the ability of international leaders and institutions to respond appropriately to the challenges facing humanity.
Against this backdrop, this article briefly examines political leadership through a comparative lens that brings Sikh political ethics into a wider debates about leadership in Western political philosophy. By contrasting the leadership of Maharaja Ranjit Singh with contemporary transactional models exemplified by Donald Trump, it explores competing conceptions of power, legitimacy, and moral responsibility. Drawing on concepts such as miri–piri, seva, and sarbat da bhala, the article argues that durable political authority is best understood as a form of ethical stewardship rather than performative domination. In doing so, it seeks to demonstrate the relevance of Sikh thought to modern debates on governance, leadership, and global political order.
Leadership, Power and Authority.
Western political philosophy has long wrestled with the tension between moral authority and coercive power. In The Republic, Plato’s ideal ruler is the philosopher king, not because he can command obedience, but because he understands the Good and governs with knowledge rather than appetite. Leadership grounded purely in desire or ambition, Plato warns, deteriorates into tyranny. Authority, for him, is at its strongest when it is restrained by reason and ordered toward the collective good rather than personal glory.
Writing a very different kind of political handbook, the Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius approached leadership from the inside. In the Meditations, composed while ruling his vast and fragile empire, he repeatedly reminds himself that power is temporary, reputation brittle, and ego a poor guide to judgment. For Aurelius, an effective ruler governs not by domination but by self discipline, and by mastering impulse before attempting to command others. From such a perspective, leadership becomes a form of ethical labour, rather than the wielding of power alone.
Machiavelli, a figure who reportedly is idolised by Donald Trump, disrupts this moral standpoint. In The Prince, being an effective leader, he argues, in not predicated on moral virtue, but on clarity and determination to achieve your goals. Indeed, for Machiavelli, this may require deception, fear, or calculated cruelty, and rulers therefore cannot be overly restricted by ethical concerns. Yet even Machiavelli’s pragmatism is often misread as a being morally blind. His concern was not the kind of spectacle or bravado that is often displayed by Donald Trump and authoritarian leaders more generally, but resilience and he was firmly of the opinion that a leader who relies too heavily on fear, invites resistance, decay and ultimately failure.
In the modern era, philosophers such as Hannah Arendt have returned to this question with renewed urgency following her work on totalitarianism. Arendt distinguished sharply between power and violence: power arises from collective consent and shared purpose, while violence compensates for its absence. Where power must constantly be asserted, especially through violence and threats, she argued, it is already betraying its inherent weakness.
Contrasting Leadership Approaches
Sikhi is often and mistakenly seen purely as a ‘religious’ ideology that is only concerned with other world affairs. This couldn’t be further from the truth, as a cursory scan Sikh of scriptural and historical literature offers critical insights into the nature of human functioning, ethics, power and politics.
Sikh political thought begins from a crucial premise that power must be balanced with responsibility and ethics. The doctrine of miri–piri, articulated by the 6th Guru, Hargobind, asserts that temporal authority (miri) is legitimate only when guided by moral responsibility (piri). Political authority from this perspective, is not self validating but must be measured by approval given by the general body of people over whom it is exercised. In this regard, one can see this as a middle ground between the ethical approach of Marcus Aurelius and the pragmatism of Machiavelli.
Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s authority reflected this balance. Though an autocrat by constitutional standards, he governed through consultation, respected religious plurality, and embedded power in institutions rather than spectacle. His presence was restrained; his court was administrative rather than theatrical.
Donald Trump’s leadership style, by contrast, has been widely characterised as chaotic, performative and personality driven. Trump seeks to project through visibility, rhetoric, and confrontation rather than consensus. For authoritarian leaders like Trump, institutions matter insofar as they serve the leader’s capacity to negotiate and prevail.
While it is premature given Trump is still in power, all the indications are, especially in the context of his grave blunder to decide to attach Iran, that he may be subject to the 22nd Amendment of the US constitution. This gives Congress the power to remove president is he is deemed unable to discharge the powers and duties of the office.
Power, Governance and Moral Responsibility
However they may have gained the leadership position, the moral duty of all rulers and ultimate justification for the power is invested in them is to serve the people and maintain social harmony. From Aurangzeb in Mughal India, to Hitler in Nazi Germany and Stalin in communist Russia, no leader in human history, however brutal their policies may have been, would claim to be motivated by cruelty. Indeed, those rulers throughout history that have exercised brutality have in the language of moral necessity, the need to order, and when it comes to theocratic leaders, such as the Ayatollah’s of Iran, some higher purpose. Tyranny rarely presents itself as cruelty, but as duty!
In Sikh thought, tyrannical rule is not justified on any grounds and not by invoking some spurious will or mission of God. legitimacy flows not from victory or mandate alone, but from ethical conduct in office. Ranjit Singh governed a religiously plural population by institutionalising fairness. Muslims retained their own legal practices; Hindu and Sikh sites received protection; revenue systems were stabilised to reduce arbitrary extraction. His rule was not neutral, but it was broadly recognised as just, hence its durability.
Largely due to his legacy as the enlightened founder of a unified, tolerant Sikh Empire between 1799 and 1839, in a BBC World Histories Magazine poll in 2020, Maharaja Ranjit Singh was voted the “Greatest Leader” of all time. Riven by conflict, political instability, Ranjit Singh was credited with transforming a region plagued by conflict into a prosperous and stable state that embraced secular governance.
Transactional leadership approaches, such as those characterised by Donald Trump often frame policy programmes as a series of deals, evaluated by immediate gain and loss. Alliances, norms, and even constitutional conventions are treated as obstacles and the language of duty gives way to one of winning. Indeed, to justify their egotistical and authoritarian approach, these leaders may even invoke the rhetoric of ‘divine mission’, and that ‘God’ is on their side!
Diplomacy and Haumai (Ego)
Sikh ethics repeatedly warn against haumai or unbridled ego that confuses personal will with collective good. Leaders shaped by haumai may succeed tactically but destabilise the moral order necessary for lasting authority.
Ranjit Singh demonstrated an acute awareness of limits. Facing the expansion of the British Empire, he resisted both submission and reckless confrontation. Indeed, one of the features of Ranjit Singh’s rule, which only ended after his death, numerous treaties were used not as a sign of weakness, but as tools for preserving autonomy and peace. Diplomacy was strategic, not emotional. As Khushwant Singh, in his book on the Maharaja notes, “Ranjit Singh was extremely angry with the English, but he had never let anger be his counseller.”
In contrast, Donald Trump’s approach to diplomacy has consistently foregrounded leverage and pressure. Long standing alliances are reassessed through immediate transactional value; unpredictability is used as a negotiating tactic. While such methods can yield short‑term concessions, they tend to undermine trust, which is a political asset that is difficult to restore once eroded.
Service Versus Extraction
At the heart of Sikh ethical leadership is the duty to serve rather than engage in self aggrandisement. Applied to leadership, it transforms power from possession into responsibility, with ruler becoming a benevolent steward around whom diverse sections of the population can identify rather than a brand that demands sycophantic support.
Ranjit Singh’s administration reflected this ethic. Under his rule, infrastructure, cultural life, and military reform were pursued not to enhance his image, but to stabilise the state. Expansion was followed by consolidation; institutions were strengthened to function beyond the ruler’s presence.
The daily Sikh prayer concludes with the slogan ‘sarbat da bhala…’ which literally means, welfare of all humanity. This is not sentimental universalism or some spiritual escapism, but a hard political insight: societies endure when prosperity and security are broadly shared and greed, inequality and poverty is the breeding ground for conflict.
Ranjit Singh’s legacy rests not on conquest alone, but on the relative stability and confidence his rule brought to Punjab. Though his empire declined after his death, the memory that endures is one of order rather than fear.
By contrast, the transactional leadership associated with Donnad Trump and authoritarian leaders more generally, often externalises costs: disruption is reframed as innovation, and institutional strain treated as collateral damage. Such approaches may benefit individual leaders, but they weaken the systems they leave behind. Its successes may appear vivid, such as enforcing a deal through co-erosion or simple dishonesty, these are often fragile prone to breaking down. And when this occurs, the blame for failure tends to be directed elsewhere.
The comparison between the strength that Ranjit Singh derived through his form but fair approach and that of Donnald Trump, is not simple a question virtue versus vice; It is about difference perceptions of strength. One understands power as something accumulated through restraint, justice, and service. The other, like the school bully, treats power as something demonstrated through generating fear, pressure and visibility.
Final Thoughts
At a time when strong political leadership is increasingly identified with authoritarianism resulting in growing conflict at a time where humanity needs to unite to overcome the many problems we all face, most notably, the climate and energy crisis, conflict and violence, within and between countries and increasing global inequality, Maharaja Ranjit Singh offers an example of an alternative approach grounded in the miri–piri concept underpinned by sarbat da bhalla.
History is the ultimate judge of political leadership and in this regard, we are reminded that leadership is less about how loudly power is asserted than about how carefully it is exercised. The language may differ – miri piri in nineteenth century Punjab, constitutional norms in the modern West – but the underlying test remains the same: does authority serve the common good, or simply the moment to satisfy their ego? And in this regard, the example of Maharaja Ranjit Singh lends considerable weight to the argument that strength shaped by restraint and benevolence does not need any cheer leaders; It endures because people recognise leaders who display these characteristics as their own.
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Gurnam Singh is an academic activist dedicated to human rights, liberty, equality, social and environmental justice. He is a Professor of Sociology at University of Warwick, UK. He can be contacted at Gurnam.singh.1@warwick.ac.uk
* This is the opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of Asia Samachar.
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